Suitcase murder case: Kids’ mother appears in court

A 42-year-old woman arrested in Korea after the bodies of her two children were found abandoned in suitcases in Auckland has appeared in a New Zealand courtroom for the first time on the murder charges.

Media from New Zealand and abroad filled the small Manukau District Court courtroom to capacity yesterday, with others listening in via audio-video feed, as the woman stood in the dock before Judge Gus Andre´e Wiltens.

The judge confirmed the women’s relationship to the deceased children was not covered by suppression given it was common knowledge and had already being reported. She was their mother.

The defendant had shoulderlength hair that appeared wet.

She walked into the dock with her eyes looking down and was wearing a beige hooded jacket and a black T-shirt, similar to the one she was photographed pulling over her face shortly after she was arrested and being escorted from Ulsan police station in Korea.

She was flanked by an interpreter and two guards and was remanded without plea into custody to await her next appearance on December 14, in the High Court at Auckland.

The woman’s interpreter asked: “May the defendant have a chance to talk to you.”

Her lawyer quickly stepped in, however.

“Thank you, Your Honour. I think it would be best if perhaps she didn’t.” The judge responded: “I agree.” She was then taken out of the courtroom. The hearing lasted less than five minutes.

The children’s bodies were discovered in August after an Auckland family bought abandoned goods, including two suitcases, from a storage unit in an online auction.

The victims were between 5 and 10 years old and had been dead for years, according to police.